This chapter explores two rituals patterns involving women and hair. One is a ceremony prescribed for a married woman accused of adultery by her husband in the absence of witnesses or other tangible ...
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This chapter explores two rituals patterns involving women and hair. One is a ceremony prescribed for a married woman accused of adultery by her husband in the absence of witnesses or other tangible proof (Numbers 5:11–31). It is a particularly troubling passage for modern appropriators of biblical material, with its implications concerning men’s abusive power and women’s subjugation. A key symbol of the ritual involves the woman’s hair and the difficult-to-translate term pr‘, explored in connection with heroic hair and the uncut hair of the Nazirite vow. The second symbolic complex involves the treatment of one of the most valuable and vulnerable spoils of war, captured women (Deuteronomy 21:10–14). If an Israelite man desires one of these women as a wife, he may take her, but she is first transformed by ritual actions, among which is the shaving of her hair. Both passages are disturbing, multilayered, and thought provoking regarding gender, cultural identity, and transformation.Less

Letting Down Her Hair or Cutting It Off : The Ritual Trial of a Woman Accused of Adultery and the Transformation of the Female “Other”

Susan Niditch

Published in print: 2008-03-01

This chapter explores two rituals patterns involving women and hair. One is a ceremony prescribed for a married woman accused of adultery by her husband in the absence of witnesses or other tangible proof (Numbers 5:11–31). It is a particularly troubling passage for modern appropriators of biblical material, with its implications concerning men’s abusive power and women’s subjugation. A key symbol of the ritual involves the woman’s hair and the difficult-to-translate term pr‘, explored in connection with heroic hair and the uncut hair of the Nazirite vow. The second symbolic complex involves the treatment of one of the most valuable and vulnerable spoils of war, captured women (Deuteronomy 21:10–14). If an Israelite man desires one of these women as a wife, he may take her, but she is first transformed by ritual actions, among which is the shaving of her hair. Both passages are disturbing, multilayered, and thought provoking regarding gender, cultural identity, and transformation.

Wittgenstein’s criticisms of Frazer’s explanation of the rule of succession of the priest-king of Nemi are clarified. Professor Frank Cioffi’s objections to Wittgenstein’s criticisms are examined. In ...
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Wittgenstein’s criticisms of Frazer’s explanation of the rule of succession of the priest-king of Nemi are clarified. Professor Frank Cioffi’s objections to Wittgenstein’s criticisms are examined. In an appendix, Professor Cioffi’s objections to this discussion are rebutted.Less

P. M. S Hacker

Published in print: 2001-11-22

Wittgenstein’s criticisms of Frazer’s explanation of the rule of succession of the priest-king of Nemi are clarified. Professor Frank Cioffi’s objections to Wittgenstein’s criticisms are examined. In an appendix, Professor Cioffi’s objections to this discussion are rebutted.

Though a generation has passed since the massacre of civilians at My Lai, the legacy of this tragedy continues to reverberate throughout Vietnam and the rest of the world. This engrossing study ...
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Though a generation has passed since the massacre of civilians at My Lai, the legacy of this tragedy continues to reverberate throughout Vietnam and the rest of the world. This engrossing study considers how Vietnamese villagers in My Lai and Ha My—a village where South Korean troops committed an equally appalling, though less well-known, massacre of unarmed civilians—assimilate the catastrophe of these mass deaths into their everyday ritual life. Based on a detailed study of local history and moral practices, this book focuses on the particular context of domestic life in which the Vietnamese villagers lived. The book explains what intimate ritual actions can tell us about the history of mass violence and the global bipolar politics that caused it. It highlights the aesthetics of Vietnamese commemorative rituals and the morality of their practical actions to liberate the spirits from their grievous history of death. The book brings these important practices into a critical dialogue with dominant sociological theories of death and symbolic transformation.Less

After the Massacre : Commemoration and Consolation in Ha My and My Lai

Heonik Kwon

Published in print: 2006-11-10

Though a generation has passed since the massacre of civilians at My Lai, the legacy of this tragedy continues to reverberate throughout Vietnam and the rest of the world. This engrossing study considers how Vietnamese villagers in My Lai and Ha My—a village where South Korean troops committed an equally appalling, though less well-known, massacre of unarmed civilians—assimilate the catastrophe of these mass deaths into their everyday ritual life. Based on a detailed study of local history and moral practices, this book focuses on the particular context of domestic life in which the Vietnamese villagers lived. The book explains what intimate ritual actions can tell us about the history of mass violence and the global bipolar politics that caused it. It highlights the aesthetics of Vietnamese commemorative rituals and the morality of their practical actions to liberate the spirits from their grievous history of death. The book brings these important practices into a critical dialogue with dominant sociological theories of death and symbolic transformation.

This chapter focuses on ritual performance. An individual performance of a ritual was not merely a simple repetition of an eternally fixed formula, but rather the conscious attempt of a historical ...
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This chapter focuses on ritual performance. An individual performance of a ritual was not merely a simple repetition of an eternally fixed formula, but rather the conscious attempt of a historical individual to do the ritual, to repeat a time-honored pattern, to perform it to and for others in a specific situation, in a particular place. Writing, that is literature, might have been part of the performance. Texts are not only a part of the actual performance but also a part of its context, part of the performer's and audience's knowledge. Communication about ritual performances can be a determining factor in the interpretation and modification of a ritual action, and an individual performance cannot be analyzed in isolation from communication about previous performances or about the norms of the ritual.Less

Dynamics of Individual Appropriation

Jörg Rüpke

Published in print: 2016-10-04

This chapter focuses on ritual performance. An individual performance of a ritual was not merely a simple repetition of an eternally fixed formula, but rather the conscious attempt of a historical individual to do the ritual, to repeat a time-honored pattern, to perform it to and for others in a specific situation, in a particular place. Writing, that is literature, might have been part of the performance. Texts are not only a part of the actual performance but also a part of its context, part of the performer's and audience's knowledge. Communication about ritual performances can be a determining factor in the interpretation and modification of a ritual action, and an individual performance cannot be analyzed in isolation from communication about previous performances or about the norms of the ritual.

This introductory chapter explains how in the study of language and culture, scholars may be interested in the significance of meaning for reasons other than the pursuit of meaning for its own sake. ...
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This introductory chapter explains how in the study of language and culture, scholars may be interested in the significance of meaning for reasons other than the pursuit of meaning for its own sake. Analyzing how societies speak about rituals and interpret them indicates a larger interest about the nature of ritual action, hermeneutics, and historiography. The study presents myths and methods that may turn out to represent social or cultural circles lying at the skirts of rabbinic authority. But, at the same time, it derives from bodies of ancient Jewish literature, such as magical and divination texts and liturgical poetry or piyyut, that are not included in the rabbinic canon. While there is still debate about whether these forms of expression should be included in the category of “rabbinic” Judaism, it is clear that these literatures were not produced by the central shapers of the Talmuds.Less

Introduction : Outside the Text

Michael D. Swartz

Published in print: 2012-04-02

This introductory chapter explains how in the study of language and culture, scholars may be interested in the significance of meaning for reasons other than the pursuit of meaning for its own sake. Analyzing how societies speak about rituals and interpret them indicates a larger interest about the nature of ritual action, hermeneutics, and historiography. The study presents myths and methods that may turn out to represent social or cultural circles lying at the skirts of rabbinic authority. But, at the same time, it derives from bodies of ancient Jewish literature, such as magical and divination texts and liturgical poetry or piyyut, that are not included in the rabbinic canon. While there is still debate about whether these forms of expression should be included in the category of “rabbinic” Judaism, it is clear that these literatures were not produced by the central shapers of the Talmuds.

The final chapter explores the ways in which competing interests and social groups of the polis potentially threatened the unity of the synoikized city. It first discusses potential causes for ...
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The final chapter explores the ways in which competing interests and social groups of the polis potentially threatened the unity of the synoikized city. It first discusses potential causes for disunity (competing founder cults and claims to religious and social prerogatives, the challenges of social organization). It then focuses on the ways in which these challenges were addressed and negotiated. The chapter stresses the functional role of ritual activity and symbolism in binding together communities of disparate backgrounds while simultaneously accommodating distinctiveness within a unified political community. In this context, religious and civic traditions could constitute a challenge to the authority of the Hellenistic kings, but the potential for using religious symbolism and ritual to forge a collective political identity also represented an opportunity for building consensus. The chapter engages sociological and anthropological perspectives on ritual and ritual activity, myth, symbolism, and memory to address issues of consensus, legitimacy, dialogue, and social response.Less

Consensus, Community, and Discourses of Power

Ryan Boehm

Published in print: 2018-02-09

The final chapter explores the ways in which competing interests and social groups of the polis potentially threatened the unity of the synoikized city. It first discusses potential causes for disunity (competing founder cults and claims to religious and social prerogatives, the challenges of social organization). It then focuses on the ways in which these challenges were addressed and negotiated. The chapter stresses the functional role of ritual activity and symbolism in binding together communities of disparate backgrounds while simultaneously accommodating distinctiveness within a unified political community. In this context, religious and civic traditions could constitute a challenge to the authority of the Hellenistic kings, but the potential for using religious symbolism and ritual to forge a collective political identity also represented an opportunity for building consensus. The chapter engages sociological and anthropological perspectives on ritual and ritual activity, myth, symbolism, and memory to address issues of consensus, legitimacy, dialogue, and social response.

Readers are asked to take objects to which they have attached spiritual meaning and create special (sacred or ritual) spaces for those objects. They are then asked to examine how their awareness of ...
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Readers are asked to take objects to which they have attached spiritual meaning and create special (sacred or ritual) spaces for those objects. They are then asked to examine how their awareness of the location of their spiritually endowed object influences their daily behaviour and the meanings they attach to local experiences.Less

Creating Local Value

A. David Napier

Published in print: 2013-12-23

Readers are asked to take objects to which they have attached spiritual meaning and create special (sacred or ritual) spaces for those objects. They are then asked to examine how their awareness of the location of their spiritually endowed object influences their daily behaviour and the meanings they attach to local experiences.

Readers are invited to take an everyday object and animate it. The purpose is to examine how our attitude towards material things may be transformed by ritual engagement with the things around us. ...
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Readers are invited to take an everyday object and animate it. The purpose is to examine how our attitude towards material things may be transformed by ritual engagement with the things around us. Readers may wish to reflect on how it is possible to put a monetary value on objects in other cultures where people's local worlds are ritually invested.Less

Shaping Behavior

A. David Napier

Published in print: 2013-12-23

Readers are invited to take an everyday object and animate it. The purpose is to examine how our attitude towards material things may be transformed by ritual engagement with the things around us. Readers may wish to reflect on how it is possible to put a monetary value on objects in other cultures where people's local worlds are ritually invested.